


The Dreams and Heartaches in The Sky

by tide_ms



Category: Oh My Girl (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Another Earth, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, One-Sided Attraction, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-16 16:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16957419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tide_ms/pseuds/tide_ms
Summary: Mihyun falls in love with her best friend under the lights of a different world. Coincidentally, Jiho falls in love with Mihyun, too.





	The Dreams and Heartaches in The Sky

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sungjae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sungjae/gifts).



> I was writing one of your other prompts when I thought why not give this one (and this pairing) a try, and how easy the words came still shocks and delights me ;o;
> 
> Hope you enjoy reading.

 

 

Mihyun can't tell for sure whether Earth Two looks frightening or not.

It's been over a week since it appeared in the sky, and if anything, Earth Two now looks less like and illusion and more like a hopeful dream, fixed in the sky within reach.

  
It doesn't look small or far even though maybe it should because otherwise the apparent closeness suggests gravitational issues to occur, or at least that's what Mihyun has been hearing over the last few days.

During the day, Earth Two paints their world with a hint of fantasy, awe and mystery, and during the night, it's tiny dots scattered over sheer darkness, which proposes the fact that it must be night over there, too, and these are the lights of the cities, eagerly looking like stars.

"It's its moon," Jiho says suddenly, drawing Mihyun out of her alcohol-induced daze and back to the calmness of the night.

"What?" Mihyun turns, the slight movement makes her head spin; the grass pokes at her skin.

"Moon Two makes it look normal. Friendlier," Jiho explains, and Mihyun remembers the question she'd asked earlier.

"It's that or we're still too shocked to be scared I guess."

Mihyun returns to staring at Seoul's night sky.

Beside her, Jiho is warm— her presence is reassuring, and for that, Mihyun feels safe to relax.

"What do you think we're doing up there?" Mihyun asks.

"Probably nothing because we aren't up there."

"You don't know that, they say Two might be a mirror Earth."

"They don't know, either, that's why everyone is this close to full panic mo—"

Mihyun places her hand over Jiho's mouth then.

"I know the other me is doing this right now because you've been no fun the whole night. For all we know, the world is ending any minute now, you should be more kind to me and indulge me in these fascinating thoughts, not just sneak out and get drunk with me."

Jiho doesn't push her hand away; doesn't warn Mihyun with her infamous glare that she scares away the other trainees with. Her eyes remain gentle with a sweet glimmer as she gazes at the sky.

Strangely, it feels as though it's the first time Mihyun sees that rapt look. To the point where butterflies flutter in her stomach, warmth spread through her chest, and just like Earth Two, these sensations don't exactly frighten Mihyun.

They give her a pause, her hand tingles for no obvious reason.

"Are you even drunk? You drank more than me."

Jiho speaks against her palm, her voice comes out muffled, but her lips are soft.

Mihyun notes that, and her heart beats a little faster because of that.

"Hm, what was that—"

Before Mihyun can enjoy herself with teasing Jiho, the latter attempts to bite her hand.

Mihyun shrieks, pulling away, and soon her laughter is filling the night.

"The world won't end, unnie, you should stop listening to those weird podcasts," Jiho tells her, extending her arm to bring Mihyun closer to her.

Mihyun yelps due to Jiho's strength, but relaxes instantly upon hearing what Jiho says next. "I'll be more kind to you. Even during our off days."

 

  
The world does not end. Both the worlds don't, actually.

Things return to something akin to normalcy a couple of months later, and for a fleeting moment, it had felt like everyone around the world was in this unknown thing together.

Mihyun finds that moment sweet enough to forget the gravity of the fact that there is still another planet, an exact image of hers, lodged in the sky. Instead she focuses on ignoring all these confusing thoughts and feelings she's starting to have for Jiho.

Feelings as sweet as unity of human kind and as magical as having another Earth and its adorable moon to greet her in the morning.

Mihyun sometimes wonder if they'll disappear if she stared at them long enough.

 

 

Their company's ceo has a change of heart. He cancels all plans to debut his trainees, helps them find other agencies for another chance to achieve their dreams, and gets into gardening.

Mihyun and Jiho decide to drop the idol life all together after that. It's a hard decision that takes a week to make, but the letting go somehow comes easy after that. (Earth Two peering down at them every day probably has something to do with it.)

  
With depending on their savings to support themselves, they find a small apartment. Mihyun finds a part-time job and fully focuses on composing and lyric writing while Jiho goes to college.

It's a little difficult, starting from scratch, new dreams and new paths. Lyrics and tunes keep coming to her, but they're always imperfect, empty of the passion Mihyun knows she has. Sometimes, they even unsuitable to the turn life has taken.

 _Another Earth._  It easily becomes a part of daily life as a series of attempts to communicate with it begins and never ends.

  
Life becomes stressful enough that Mihyun forgets about her own change of heart, and with Jiho being too busy that they barely get more than five minutes to talk each day, Mihyun doesn't notice that the change is irreversible.

 

One night, while Mihyun is staring at yet another empty sheet of paper, Jiho enters her room and flops on her bed; spent and sleepily mumbling something about how training to be an idol was much easier than a first year at college.

Suddenly, Mihyun's heart is filled with content and she can breathe again, and Mihyun notices the change.

"Starting all over in a new agency isn't, nope," Mihyun comments, putting her pen down and starting to sway her chair. "There is only little left, you'll get through it."

"Not while Yoobin breathes down my neck, no," Jiho says into the mattress. "Enough talking about Yoobin, unnie."

"I didn't even—"

"How was your day?" Jiho asks, interrupting.

Mihyun shakes her head. _Not a lot of people manage to get on Jiho's nerves, this Yoobin must be something._

Jiho's clearly tired, but she waits for Mihyun's answer.

She waits, and when Mihyun doesn't answer because she's contemplating what to say, Jiho looks at her; her voice softens in that way Jiho rarely shows. "Rough day? Unnie, you should take a break. You've been writing and composing nonstop since we left."

Mihyun's heart races now, beats in a different way that surprises and confuses her.

She loves it when Jiho lets her care seep unhindered into her voice, into her words and into her gentle hugs and little gestures she does thinking Mihyun doesn't care about them.

Mihyun loves that a lot.

"It's okay, I think I'm finally on to something," Mihyun says.

"What's it?"

Mihyun turns then, her cheeks burning and the warmth in her chest spreads all the way to her soul.

It makes her giddy.

"It's a secret."

Jiho hums, getting comfortable on Mihyun's bed. "We'll see about that," she says, voice fading at the last bit.

And it's at that moment that Mihyun realizes Jiho has been with her in every step she has made ever since they met at WM.

Mihyun smiles to herself in gratitude, and days and weeks later, Mihyun discovers that falling in love is easy.

 

 

After several failed attempts, Mihyun finishes a song about lost dreams shining eternally and beautifully like dead stars.

"That's a little bleak considering it's about hope," Jiho comments on it.

"It is not about hope, haven't you been listening? It's about moving on, goddamn it."

"Definitely the same. I love it."

  
The song doesn't get to be the title for the album, but Mihyun is content enough with the way the artist expresses the song. And she's content with feeling accomplished, which makes her believe that life truly hasn't changed that much despite the huge change in their reality. Changing dreams, finding a job and a place to live, falling in love, being productive; they're all normal things. Earth Two is probably having the same normal things. Earth Two in their sky is now a normal thing. Maybe.

But here is another normal thing that life shows Mihyun: heartbreak.

It comes unexpected, it comes in the form of Jiho and Yoobin getting together in their sophomore year, with no knowledge of the love Mihyun has been carefully harboring in her heart, and waiting to make sure it truly is love before confessing to Jiho.

  
Mihyun registers the sinking ache in her heart quickly when she has spent the past year occasionally wondering if Earth Two was a figment of everyone's imagination.

 

 

 

Yoobin wasn't supposed to like the idea of her going to Mirror Earth to ask for a relationship advice, let alone support it.

"I know you, but Mirror Jiho has known you her whole life, and knows your relationship with Mihyun unnie," Yoobin said, completely discarding the fact that it's been four years since Mirror Earth appeared in the sky and they stopped walking the same path. Or at least, that's what Jiho believes.

  
But then again, Jiho wouldn't have told Yoobin about that idea if she wasn't seriously considering it already.

  
Mirror Earth doesn't look different from home, it feels different.

It has the same air as home, more or less, the same people and the same places, but it is foreign and the moment Jiho steps out of the spaceport she gets worried.

The cars are the same, the written words are the same, the colors and the voices, too. Everything is the same, yet under a different light and that light is her home filling the bright, clear sky above.

Home looks magnificent from down here, strong and reassuring, Jiho finds, and her worries evaporate.

  
Her apartment building on Mirror Earth has exactly the same shade of dull white as the one back home. The decorations and plants hanging from the balconies don't, however, and that gives Jiho a pause.

What if Mirror Jiho doesn't live here? What if she's never lived here?

It's a recurring doubt that hasn't felt so real until now, until it's too late, but Jiho endures it pokes at her mind and walks inside.

When she knocks on the door and someone that looks exactly like Mihyun appears behind the door, Jiho's heart falls into panic mood.

Mirror Mihyun is half asleep as she asks why she knocked on the door instead of getting inside. She's rubbing her eyes, her voice is (familiarly) adorably hoarse.

"Ya, what's wrong?" Mirror Mihyun asks.

Jiho opens her mouth to reply, to introduce herself because clearly Mirror Mihyun hasn't realized who she is, but nothing comes out. Nothing feels proper enough upon seeing this image of the girl she's desperately in love with.

At Jiho's silence, Mihyun focuses.

It takes her a moment of staring before her eyes go wide and a shriek erupts from her throat.

Jiho is startled.

"You— you're Jiho— you are not Jiho! Oh my God! The other Jiho!"

 

 

The shock, the amazement and eeriness of not being alone in the universe that Jiho had felt four years ago rush back to her all over again in a very inescapable wave.

Her heart is beating so fast, so loud, and Mirror Mihyun is staring at her in silence and awe.

"You look just like her," Mirror Mihyun says absently.

"I... I could say the same for you," Jiho replies, her mouth feels dry and her clothes feel suffocating.

"Wait— what are you doing here? _Why_ are you here?" She lets out abruptly, but in the same breath she tenses up. "I... I don't mean to sound rude, but... yeah."

Jiho shakes her head immediately. "It's okay."

"Uh, hold on, I need coffee," Mirror Mihyun says then, rushing to the kitchen before Jiho can say anything.

"Aren't you afraid of me?"

Of all the things Jiho could've asked, that probably wasn't one of them.

Mirror Mihyun turns to her. "Why, should I?!"

Jiho blushes.

"I'm not afraid of you," she says nervously.

Mirror Mihyun looks confused for a moment, then she replies awkwardly. "I mean, it'd be weird if you are considering that you're the one travelling all the way from Earth Two."

_Earth Two?_

Mirror Mihyun continues, and Jiho follows her silently.

"Jiho, I should call Jiho and let her know!"

Jiho perks up upon hearing that.

"Doesn't she live here?" she asks.

"She does, sort of. She's on a vacation right now," Mirror Mihyun answers, hastily moving around in the kitchen. "Oh, she would be super jealous I saw one of us before her!"

Mirror Mihyun seem to remember something then. "Where is me— oh, damn it! You're really here and there is another me! Is she with you?" she looks at her, expectant and worried and excited all at once, and that gently gets to Jiho, gently draws a smile of fondness to her lips even though this is not _her_ Mihyun. "Where is she? how is she?"

It's dizzying, really.

Jiho realizes the smile stuck to her face and quickly drops her gaze to the floor.

"She isn't here," she says, then hesitantly adds. "Unnie. She debuted three years ago, a few months after the discovery. She's currently one of the best rappers in the country."

Mirror Mihyun is instantly surprised, but her body moves to push the chair back, signalling for Jiho to sit.

"We were training together, but the ceo changed our group's plans after some dropped out. Mihyun unnie got to debut first, and I... waited, but I think my chance has long passed by then. So I left."

"Oh. Wow," Mirror Mihyun replies quietly. "Actually... that feels familiar," she adds, then tells Jiho all about how it went down in this Earth.

She finishes with, "Jiho and I decided to try different things after that."

Hearing how the discovery year had gone for Mirror Mihyun and Jiho feels surreal, yet familiar enough for Jiho to remain grounded.

"Jiho studies business now," Mirror Mihyun says, "I'm a songwriter. I..." She seems confused— no, not confused, Jiho recognizes the face she's making. "I mean, it's an off on thing, but I write songs sometimes."

She's overwhelmed.

The tears welling up in her eyes says as much.

 

 

Sitting across her on the small table, Jiho patiently waits for Mirror Mihyun to stop crying and mumbling things about Mirror Jiho and their dream to be an idol.

"Unnie, stop crying now. It's been over ten minutes."

"I wasn't crying, I teared up a little. There is a difference, and—"

"You were practically bawling."

"—you know, this is a very special moment. Not every day you get to meet someone from a whole different Earth, someone _you know,_ " Mirror Mihyun continues, wiping her face. "I got to be a freaking idol over there? Wait, I mean, her, not me. But still. What's it like? Is she famous?"

Jiho smiles at her attempt to avert attention from what just happened.

"She is. She's actually in a duo, both of them are super famous. And have a lot of fans."

"That's nice, I guess" Mirror Mihyun says, faintly pouting. "It was a good dream when I had it."

Jiho feels the same about it, but also feels bitter. _She was meant to be living that dream with Mihyun._

_This Mihyun was supposed to live that dream, as well. With her Jiho._

_So similar,_ Jiho thinks.

"Why are you here, Jiho?" Mirror Mihyun asks calmly.

Jiho remembers her idea, and finds it extremely embarrassing now.

"I'm..." she hesitates, wondering whether she should tell the truth or a white lie, but she never lied to Mihyun, why should she start now?

"This might sound weird, but I'm actually here to see Jiho. I wanted to know what she thinks about me confessing to Mihyun unnie," Jiho says, heart aching with nervousness because no matter what she believes about the two worlds, this girl sitting in front of her is Mihyun. In more than one way.

"I'm... I'm in love with Mihyun unnie," Jiho continues, "and I can't keep it a secret anymore. But maybe I should, she's my best friend and I don't want to lose what we have. But at the same time, I think I should tell her the truth."

Jiho then notices the surprise on Mirror Mihyun's face, her mind goes blank.

"Jiho has a girlfriend. She's on a vacation with her girlfriend."

Upon finishing, Mirror Mihyun cries again. And she doesn't stop until Jiho is both mortified and regretful.

 

 

Jiho lays a glass of water on the table quietly. She's tensed and her mind is racing with all sorts of things.

Mirror Mihyun sniffs, then bursts in laughter, making Jiho even more confused.

When she composes herself, she apologizes. "Sorry, you looked funny just now."

"You're the one who cried twice in less than half an hour."

"Eh, it happens for the best of us," Mirror Mihyun replies as she heads for the sink.

"But why?"

Mirror Mihyun doesn't answer right away. She washes her face, and takes her time to make... breakfast.

_It's past eleven a.m. already._

"Because I'm in love with Jiho," Mirror Mihyun says in a quiet voice. "Have been for a long while now, but she isn't. And then there is you, another Jiho that looks exactly like Jiho, and you're in love with another Mihyun that must look exactly like me. It's a little funny. In a sad way."

Jiho hears defeat in her voice. She senses tension lodging itself in the space between them, and filling her heart with worry.

  
Silence is heavy when it settles, Jiho doesn't know what to say, but when she does, she's sorry.

"I shouldn't have come here," she says, completely at a loss. "I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have come here."

"Don't be like that, I'm fine."

Jiho hesitates before saying. "You are not, unnie."

She wouldn't have said that if this was someone else. A different Mihyun or not, Jiho doesn't feel the difference right now.

Her heart simply hurts for her _friend_.

"True, but I am. I should be, it's been years already, and I like Yoobin, she's nice and Jiho's really happy with her."

It takes a moment for Jiho to register what Mirror Mihyun said, but when she does, her heart pounds. "What?! Yoobin? Yoo— you mean she's dating someone named Yoobin? Same age, short hair, annoying?!"

Mirror Mihyun says while preparing eggs to boil, "I wouldn't say she's annoying."

"But how?! And why?!" Jiho's almost shouting, and she doesn't easily get that loud.

Her hands shake, her mind feels empty and crowded with noisy images all at once.

"Seriously? You hate Yoobin?"

"No! But I don't like her, either! Not in that way, oh my God!"

Mirror Mihyun chuckles, and in a way it does feel hilarious, but Jiho feels very annoyed.

"Are you sure they're dating?!" Jiho now stands and paces the kitchen.

"Yes!" Mirror Mihyun says between giggles. "You guys never dated or something?"

"What? No!" Jiho covers her head, shivering and grimacing. "This is messed up, this is really messed up! Yoobin will annoy me about this for the rest of my life."

Her head spins, but Mirror Mihyun's laughter is soft and familiar that Jiho doesn't feel embarrassed about freaking out.

"You know, they used to bicker a lot when they first met. They had a couple of classes together and Jiho would always come home angry because she had yet another argument with Yoobin."

"We still do that," Jiho says, and shudders.

_It's really messed up._

"This is so funny," Mirror Mihyun comments with a deep sigh.

"I'm not laughing."

"Oh, believe me, that what makes it funny."

Jiho frowns.

"I shouldn't have come here," she says, but Mirror Mihyun doesn't stop smiling.

"Too late now," she says. "I'm gonna shower before the food is done. Make yourself comfortable."

She's still laughing as she leaves Jiho to her thoughts, to the very uncomfortable imagery of a Jiho and a Yoobin, together, when all she wanted was a relationship advice.

 

 

 

Jiho Two is calm by the time Mihyun finishes her shower. She's frowning still, and glaring holes at the food she neatly prepared on the table, but she's quiet.

And she's as real as Jiho.

_Her Jiho._

  
Jiho takes a deep breath, and sighs, her heart feels strangely lighter.

"What are you going to do now?"

"The flight home is due in five hours," Jiho Two replies.

Mihyun swallows thickly, suddenly nervous.

"I meant about confessing your feelings to, er, the other Mihyun."

Jiho Two blushes. "Oh."

Mihyun sits across from her, noticing how Jiho Two arranged the plates the same way Jiho does.

_More similarities._

"I... I don't know," Jiho Two says. "What do you think I should do?"

The question comes out shocking when it shouldn't.

Mihyun answers with silence as she takes a bite.

Jiho waits patiently.

"If you're even considering confessing, then you must think she might have the same feelings for you. There must be, I don't know, moments or signs that made you think about doing it. Or like, gestures, there must have been something that made you think she loves you back, or otherwise you would have already let go of your feelings for her. You wouldn't have even admitted of loving her to yourself if you weren't confident she might have the same feelings for you."

Jiho Two looks taken aback. "That's shockingly specific, unnie."

"But not wrong."

"No, not really," Jiho Two admits with a frown, then adds. "But what if _I_ got it all wrong? It'd would make things awkward between us."

"Would it?" Mihyun asks, an immediate feeling sinking in her heart.

_It wouldn't._

Jiho Two doesn't answer, she gazes at her with a faint furrow of her brows.

"It shouldn't," Mihyun adds belatedly. "She won't allow things to change between you, she won't want to lose you. I'm confident she won't let that happen."

"Aren't you being biased? Considering everything," Jiho asks with familiar bluntness that gets Mihyun to roll her eyes.

Warmth spreads through Mihyun's chest, sweet and easily overwhelming. It lingers in her heart and stomach, just like it would if the one sitting is her Jiho.

It's strange, she had never met this Jiho before this day, but then It feels familiar and normal to the extent where feeling that warmth doesn't get uncomfortable.

"I didn't mean to open your wounds, unnie. I'm sorry."

Mihyun didn't really take that badly, but Jiho Two's genuine care strikes her.

She looks and talks and cares just like _her_ Jiho.

"It's okay, you didn't."

Mihyun stares, and stops only when Jiho Two raises her eyes and asks through a mouthful. "What?"

Something bizarre happens then, a very familiar ache sinks heavily in her heart. This is _not_ her Jiho, yet she feels as though she has lost her all over again.

But at the same time, she feels content to know that in another life, a very real and existing life, Jiho loved Mihyun.

And that makes the heaviness resolve, that brings her solace for hopelessly falling in love with her best friend. Finally.

"Are you about to cry again?" Jiho Two asks hesitantly, clearly worried.

Well, there are tears gathering in her eyes, but Mihyun quickly pushes them back.

"No, that would be embarrassing, goddamn it," she says in a low voice, sort of already embarrassed, and refocuses on Jiho Two's dilemma. "Now, tell me how did you _know_ she loves you back?"

 

 

 

Before she went to Mirror Earth, Jiho had kept her mind open about all the explanations as to how another Earth has appeared in their sky.

But after she returned, she's started to believe that what matters isn't how, but why.

She still doesn't have an answer to that.

_To help her decide on important matters like friendship and love didn't seem quite it._

But Jiho isn't in a rush to find an answer, she's happy with Mirror Earth remaining in their sky; it makes the world feel magical and futuristic all at once.

And she's delighted to know that she's living a much more reasonable fate than any other Jiho out there, especially Mirror Jiho, who seems happy with Mirror Yoobin. Strangely and surprisingly in love with her, but happy, nonetheless.

  
Mihyun from Mirror Earth sends her a photo one night. The photo shows her with Mirror Jiho and Mirror Yoobin; Jiho has her arms around the two girls, Mihyun is smiling brightly, and Yoobin is... exaggeratedly puckering her lips to form a kiss.

Jiho shudders upon seeing the photo, and quickly focuses on the text because apparently it isn't enough that Yoobin still tease her about Mirror Jiho's relationship with Mirror Yoobin. The other Yoobin just has to do that, as well.

_Two weeks later and the song's still in top5 on major charts, kekeke. We're celebrating._

_They wish you a happy new year in advance btw._

_Don't forget to get drunk and get laid to celebrate the new year before Mihyun gets busy with her schedule again, keke. ;)_

  
Jiho rolls her eyes, and types quickly on the keyboard as a blush creeps under skin.

 _Congrats, unnie. I told you it'd be a hit, didn't I?_ Jiho writes, and adds her well wishes for the two other girls. She has never met them, never met her counterpart, but her curiosity is a little quenched with these constant but with-distance-in-between messages that Mihyun sends her. (The public communication networks between them and Mirror Earth take about thirteen days to deliver and receive messages. It takes longer than that to send a photo or other big file sizes. It's much faster in some countries, but also much slower in others.

Jiho's never complained about it. It works properly, she gets to communicate with Mihyun from Mirror Earth easily.)

With _Mihyun_.

Finally, Jiho writes, _Don't drink too much, unnie, you know you get stomach aches easily. And... enjoy your time safely, as well, unnie. I will, too._

_P.S. Mihyun unnie says she really likes your new haircut and asks if it'd be weird if she had the same cut for her new album?_

  
Jiho hits send, and stretches on her chair.

A few months from now, it'll be three years since she visited the planet gracing the sky, but the fact that she's gotten used to Mihyun immediately, right from the moment they sat down around the table to eat a late breakfast and talk about friendship and love, still leaves her in awe.

  
Happy and content, with a smile tugging at her lips, she draws Mihyun's attention. _Her_ Mihyun, who's currently close to dozing off on the couch.

"Mihyun unnie told me to get drunk and laid before you get busy with the new year like last year," Jiho says.

Mihyun looks at her lazily, then brightens and her eyes focus.

"See? Even the other Mihyun thinks we should have sex now that I have the time."

Jiho sits on the couch and lets Mihyun's legs settle on her thighs. "The time you have is for rest, unnie. I'm not about to take that when it hasn't even been a whole day since you got off work, and you're supposed to leave again in a couple of hours." She starts gently massaging Mihyun's legs. "We can wait."

Mihyun scoffs. "No, we can't."

"Of course, we can."

Mihyun gives up quickly, settling comfortably and closing her eyes.

"Damn it, Jiho."

"See, if you really thought you have the energy, you wouldn't have given up," Jiho comments, caressing her legs.

"Fine. At least cuddle with me before I have to get up. It's freaking cold."

Jiho laughs softly and nestles against her girlfriend. She places her arm on her waist and hugs her closer, kissing her neck.

"Sixteen days left," Jiho whispers into her hair. "That isn't a lot, you know. After that, you will have plenty of time to rest and play and... you know, do things with me."

Mihyun chuckles, probably because Jiho still finds it awkward to speak intimately with her.

Mihyuns rests her hand on Jiho's, then after a moment, she asks in a quiet voice.

"Do you ever think... about how different their lives are from ours? Why their lives went that way and ours went this?"

"Sometimes," Jiho admits, her chest hurts momentarily and she knows why.

Thinking about Mirror Earth often brings her a sense of thankfulness and... sorry.

She's thankful to have had the opportunity to meet Mihyun from Mirror Earth, to have spoken and laughed with her, even if just for a little while, and to see a glimpse of the world over there.

And she's sorry.

She's sorry because that Mihyun had found love but not the happiness that love should've brought.

"It makes me wonder if there are other Earths, too. Whether in each one we're living a different possibility," Jiho adds. "And if we were going to live the exact same life if we didn't appear in each other's sky."

Mihyun hums, and a moment later, squeezes her hand.

Jiho realizes the true gravity of her words.

They're living one possibility, but what if it wasn't the one that they would have lived if Mirror Earth didn't appear in their sky?

She hugs Mihyun tighter, and bury her face in her neck.

_What if Mihyun didn't love her back? What if she didn't love Mihyun in the first place and fell in love with someone else?_

She inhales her familiar scent deeply, and basks in her warmth as Mihyun pats her hand in silence, reassuring.

Jiho brings her even closer to her, pushing away the thoughts of a world where they aren't in love with one another.

 

It might be selfish of her to be relieved that she's living on this Earth and not the other, but even with that, she only wishes for Mihyun from Mirror Earth to find happiness. And love again.


End file.
